What Type of Street Photographer are You? - Leica Q2 Monochrom Photography
Вставка
- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- In this episode, Paul talks about the different categories of street photography and contemplates what type of street photography he would be classed as. He shows Black and white Street Photography from his recent trip to London.
For more information on Pauls London Workshops in January and March 2024 please contact him here -
www.paulreidph...
If you get no reply, please check your junk folder.
I deplore the way we slice ‘n'dice various types of photography, street photography in particular. I find it unhelpful and reductive. I see myself as just a street photographer, shooting without any thought of breaching the genres many boundaries. I photograph what catches my eye and appeals to my mood. Having said that, I would say that many of your imnages, maybe even most of your images, meet my personal criteria for what constitutes fine art street photography. Another banger of a video, Paul. Thank you.
Thanks so much!!! I always appreciate your comments!!
I saw a video somewhere where Phil Penman resisted classification and said he considers himself a “photographer.” Sure, there are various styles of street photography, but I think you’re wise to just follow your muse, and let everyone else debate your genre. Great photographs. Love the contrast, compositions, and variety.
Yeah I’d agree with that! I would rather just shoot what I want and leave it at that
wonderful black and white photography, really admire your work.
Thanks so much. Thats very kind
Great again. The man with the umbrella is just perfect for me. Keep on with the good work :-)
Thanks so much! That’s one of my fave portraits ever now
Hi Paul, I came across your name via VERO, now I’m a subscriber. I use the term, hunting and fishing, hunting being more about the candid capture of the person who is the star of the photograph, and fishing (fine art) is more about the light and composition. I find good candid captures are far more challenging. Looking forward to watching more of your videos, cheers form down under. John 🙋♂️👍
Thanks so much!!! I appreciate your comments
Brilliant!! Thanks Paul!
Thanks for watching the video
Thank you for sharing your experiences and thoughts on a very subjective topic. You have inspired me and instilled some confidence for me to try street photography. I love your examples too.
Thanks so much for watching
Great photos and great hair! 👌😄😎
Hey Paul! I really enjoyed your images. I'm with you. The 'fine art' street is nice (eye candy), but the 'docu-street' that we do has more value in my opinion. I believe we are rapidly heading towards societal collapse and I've made it my mission to document life in my local towns, so that hopefully future generations can look back and see where things went wrong. I am particularly drawn towards photographing the elderly and interactions between parents and children, with the aim of raising awareness towards peaceful parenting. I hope we get to talk/meet one day. Best wishes.
Thanks so much for watching the video! I’m sure we will meet one day
Some very inspiring work, Paul!
Thanks so much!! I really appreciate it
Hi Paul can’t wait for 25th January 2024…documentary portrait photography in monochrome was just the thing I was looking for.
Loved the photographs ❤
Bhavna xx
Amazing!!! Looking forward to seeing you there!!!! X
"just have fun". Exactly!!!! 7:51 brilliant photo, bravo
Thanks so much!! I love that one too
That you have put so much into the process and aesthetics of black and white photography makes it fine art. You are documenting the streets which makes it documentary photography. You are a fine art documentary photographer who focuses on street photography.
Thanks so much!!!
great video Paul , im from London but moved out around 12 years ago ,i still go back now and then as its my favourite place for street photography , i tend to shoot from the hip at people that catch my eye and i find interesting ,im not one for light and shadows
Thanks so much for watching the video!! I really appreciate it
excellent images as always paul. when it comes to contests it really is just too much "slicing & dicing" as one of your contributors has posted. but when thousands of entries are submitted whats to be done. i began fotography at age 15 as a hobby. I'm now 79 years old. been been doing fotography off and on both professionally and for my own pleasure all these years and always loving all of it. i shoot what interests me and i never ever category any of my work, ever, that is way too small minded. shoot what interests you, don't put yourself in a box. zen billings in canada
Thanks so much!! That’s a great way to treat your photography.
Well done with your thoughts and photographs. Stick to your believes. The one photograph that grabbed me was at 9:23, the young lady kissing the gentleman's head. I don't consider myself a good street photographer; however, it is my favorite form of photography along with documentary photography. I would argue the photograph @ 9:23 is the highest form of street photography documenting the hustle and bustle of life as a raw moment of humanity in the streets of London. In short, I believe in the many forms of street photography out there, the highest form of street photography will overlap with documentary photography in the raw, not pure, of humanity and blend them together.
Thanks so much for your comment and watching the video! I really appreciate it and enjoy reading what you’ve written
Great video and pictures and I really enjoyed being part of this workshop! Looking forward to the next time we meet!
It was great having you there! I very much enjoyed that day!!
I like capturing interesting urban spaces, but I don't purposefully look for candid shots of people. If the area is busy and there will be people in the shot, I'll look to see if I can tell some kind of story or just catch a nice pose. Leica Monochrom cameras are perfect for this as you know so well. If the area is really colorful like Tokyo business districts, I would rather use my Sony. I went there this Spring and Shinjuku, Tokyo is a street photographer's dream. I walked around with an a7rV and a Voigtlander 21mm Nokton lens. It was the most fun I've had in years.
That’s a great way to shoot
Yes! In one walk, is many opportunities.
@@paulreidphotography Thanks! Do you think you will trade your Q2 for a Leica M Monochrom someday?
I like Martin U Waltz definition, Street photography explores the human element in urban space. I note the RPS do not have a Street photography special group and street photographers who want to apply for RPS distinctions have to apply for Travel or documentary. What knots we tie ourselves up in, with language! Just enjoy doing what you what you do.
Thanks so much
Great photos
Thanks so much
Hi Paul, when someone says "just..." to our genre, that's not a good place to put energy. I think street photography has a simple and wonderfully open definition, and that is photographing humanity in public spaces. From this point of view, everyone can develop according to their inclinations. As everywhere, we should enrich each other with what we can, instead of acting elitist. My photography is very similar to yours. But I don’t describe it as a street portrait myself. Portrait is planned, arranged, the protagonists approve in advance, there is more than just a small chance. I think a few of them can be found in your selection at the end of the video. The photos you show are wonderful!
Have a good time, and a soulful photography! Best regards, Dirk (DT Classics)
Fantastic words!! Thanks so much
Paul, when someone abruptly looks at you right as you take their photo, what do you generally do? Smile? Say hello? Thank them? Try disappearing, like the Homer Simpson meme, backwards into a hedge?
I know that when I'm out in public and sense someone focusing on me - no pun intended - say, with a phone, a camera or simply a steady gaze, it immediately puts me on alert, and the look I give them will not be friendly, at least initially.
Conversely, when I've tried in the past to take a candid of someone and they've given me that sudden look, I've felt just incredibly guilty, like I've been caught reaching for their pocket.
Probably I ought to just stick to taking landscapes. But have you - or anyone here - ever experienced that feeling, that self-consciousness? If so, how have you managed to get over it?
So I give them a wave and a smile!!
15 years ago, you would have been considered as a street photographer, but nowadays skills are so low on social things, that there is a shift in the definition for the worst, my opinion. In reality they all do the same photograph again and again, there is no life and mankind there.Street photography used to mean humanism, first. And your photography is humanist and also very creative. But probably that im too punk for this era. Just enjoy, have fun with what you are doing. You won my award of beautiful photography. Respect.
Thanks so much!!! I accept the award!! Ha haa
I've never heard of anything other than "street photography", I didn't know there were so many different types....I'm just a 20 yr. veteran of creating images...feels sort of nice to not worry about what type of photographer I am....
It’s best not to worry about it! I shouldn’t
Would be interested to hear how you go about producing landscape vs portrait orientations for your photos. They are very effective and I would be interested to know if it’s camera settings, technique, post processing, etc. that you use in making these images. Thanks for your work.
It really goes with what is more interesting. What’s in the left and the right or above and below the subject.
I have Q2 Monochrom I got basically because of your channel which is an inspiration. My question is how you get those rich saturated blaacks in your images. Do you set the JPEG image quality settings to get that look (contrast, etc.) with custom settings? And do you shoot JPEG, RAW or JPEG/RAW? A red filter?
Thanks so much for watching the video. In the main I use RAW and edit in Lightroom. No filters. Just some work with the sliders in Lightroom
I'm enjoying Gruyaert and Webbs style more these days over the Instagram comedic/absurdist street snap shooters. I can shoot funny stuff all day, but I'd rather have a body of work that is deeper. Cheers.
Thanks so much for watching the video! I really appreciate it and enjoy reading your comments
I just cut to the chase and call myself a urban photographer that happens to like B&W photography but will shoot color if I see the need, and will shoot portraits, candid's, architectural and cityscape
That would simplify things!!!!
👍❤️👍
Thanks so much
Maybe your category is "Paul Reid Photography"?🙂
Ha haaa!!
Why complicate things with categories and constantly file ourselves in different compartments? Are not all photographers "documenting" the present place, moment, situation, person, regardless if its on the street, a wedding or just out and about? As a viewer I really dont care what category an image belongs to as long as it appeals me and I hope that applies for my own images aswell. The only this that would matter is cohesiveness in your work if one were to be published, but seriously how many are doing that nowdays when social media is the main window for most content?
Very interesting comment!! I agree with what you say! Thanks for watching
8.07, wish I had taken that. Pity the woman is looking at you.
Thanks so much
It is just capturing what you see on the street, don’t pay a lot of attention to labeling.
Agreed! Thanks for watching the video
I know I might ruffle some feathers but that’s’ ok. I have a BFA; in art school in the 1980s my concentration was ‘Works on Paper.’ My choice medium was etching (intaglio prints) although I always had a camera, worked in home made darkrooms. The term ‘fine art’ was a designation only given to artwork that existed as one, like a painting, carved sculpture, etc. However, prints (etchings, lithos, silkscreens, AND photographs) had to be editioned so only a predetermined number would exist. There can be second editions but the value of each print goes down. This edition/fine art term extends to cast sculpture, too. When the edition is complete, the plate, cast, negative is supposed to be destroyed. That’s the background; don’t get mad at me yet. Fast forward to pixels and social media. Who prints? If you exhibit in photography galleries, editioned prints are more valued by collectors than open editions. But again, who prints so how is the term ‘fine art photography’ even relevant? A few years ago I facilitated a photography group at a small art organization. One man referred to himself as a fine art photographer. I asked him how he decided on that label. I don’t remember his answer more than he thought his photographs were amazing. I turned the discussion to the definition of ‘fine art’ like I posted here. He told me I was an elitist. There you go. I see so many people throwing around the term and I’m perplexed by it. Some use it if their work is abstract. I keep track of prints; I stamp them with their edition number; I have a notebook where I record all of this, who purchased and the date. Regardless of the subject/label, ‘fine art’ in my archaic (pre-social media) definition refers to a finite number of prints.
I don’t have a problem with what you are saying for you , we all have to acknowledge that language is not only fluid but open to multiple definitions. Love being a great example has one overall meaning and multiple sub and personal meanings. Fine art, I read Hockney doesn’t refer to himself as an artist, so fine art is a term for the gatekeepers - the gallery owners, the art critics, the financial institutions that collect? The rest is just what someone wants to call themselves. As Chauncey Gardener said in Being there, I like to watch.
@@petegleeson1 I understand what you’re saying. I was just posing a predicament brought on by the video and how people labeled themselves. Coming from an art program, we were pressured into becoming represented by galleries. We were instructed early on to edition our work. Thus, any type of artwork or image, made in multiples needed to be limited to editions to be called fine art. It’s still that way in galleries. I just posted this so people can consider what they may have to do to show their work in galleries. I have a broken right wrist so I’m using the microphone on my phone; please forgive the grammar and spelling errors.
PS: Hockney can refer to himself however he wants. He's done well painting canvases. Dali, on the other hand, found himself in a lawsuit for signing a bunch of lithos - I think the edition was 500 - but there were many more. They became worthless. In the end, it's about your goals; language is fluid, but there are still 'rules' (for lack of a better word) if you aspire to becoming a part of the gallery/collector system.
@@dodahlberg broadly we are in agreement, but of course Hockney now creates work photographically (not so much he felt it was limited) and of course a lot of his current work comes out of an iPad, so while he may call himself what he wants (I think he calls himself a painter) the points around authenticity, ease of copying etc. that you make will also apply and he no doubt knows the process well and has similar controls to those you describe. I was quite taken by a Joel Meyerowitz picture recently and asked out of curiosity of the gallery. How much $25,000 and it was a "limited" edition. I am not sure what Joel describes himself as but I don't think it is "Fine art" photographer. :D :D
@@petegleeson1 in the end I really think the term fine art is for galleries to use for marketing. You don’t hear painter say, I’m a fine art painter! Or I’m a fine art sculptor! When collectors are looking for work that appeals to them, and see the term fine art, they are going to presume that the gallery represents people who work in single pieces or editioned works. Every commercial endeavor has its own language. Going back to the man in my first post, who called me an elitist… I tried to explain this to him. I then asked him what he did for a living, he didn’t want to tell me, so I said OK, so let’s say you were a banker. I may be throwing around terms about finance that I think are correct, but be using them all wrong. Anyway, I think we’ve made our points and I think this was a good discussion.
perhaps you're a neoralist
I have no idea what I am half the time!!